Owen reveals Liverpool didn't cough up the cash

Manchester United forward Michael Owen has revealed that Liverpool refused to stump up the money to finance a return to Anfield when he was looking to leave Real Madrid with Owen moving to Newcastle United.

In an interview with FourFourTwo magazine the former Anfield hero reveals that he signed for Newcastle United because the club matched Madrid’s valuation of him, despite admitting the reds were his first choice travelling to Liverpool for talks with the club.

Owen left Liverpool for Real Madrid in 2004 in a deal worth a reported £8 million with Antonio Nunez going in the other direction. While Owen had a successful season at the Bernabeu scoring 18 goals in 41 games, the highlight scoring in a 3-1 win against fierce rivals Barcelona, the Englishman decided to return to the Premier League with his priority a return to Liverpool, however it didn’t materialise.

Owen told FourFourTwo: “It was real. I spoke to the chief executive Rick Parry and I was in Liverpool with Rafa Benitez and we were pretty close to agreeing things. The main issue was Real Madrid and Liverpool settling on a deal and they couldn’t agree a fee – plus Newcastle were quite aggressive in their offer to Madrid. So Madrid felt that Liverpool weren’t matching their valuation of me and I thought it would be good to go to Newcastle.

“It was a World Cup year and I wanted to be playing, plus Madrid had bought two more strikers, so I went to St James’ Park and thought it was great. It’s a very similar place to Liverpool in a lot of ways – especially the people, who are football mad. I thought that, as much as it would have been great to go back to Liverpool, going to Newcastle would be just as enjoyable an experience.”

good thing that scum never came

It would have been an interesting one if he had returned then..

true but he would have been a flop

He joined newcastle in 2005 and suffered long term injuries so yeah i think he wouldn't have been much of a hit aswel.. But a decent back up for the upcomming torres.

yes he would have, maybe we could have won the league 2008-2009

Yeah if he was still here and fit then who knows..

Judas couldn't help rubbing it in then.

actually owen started off his first few games awesome at newcastle and also scored a hatrick against west brom (i think, not very sure) and as far as i remember he was doing really well until he injured his metatarsal against tottenham, to be exact Robinson was the one to injure him yeh was really mad at Robinson but then again it happens!

so things might have been A LOT different had he come back to Liverpool

idiot...

This is old news. I would have liked it if he returned to Liverpool, lets not forget how good he actually was for us. Now he can go to hell, playing for Man.Utd. will not be forgiven.

siaukia wrote:This is old news. I would have liked it if he returned to Liverpool, lets not forget how good he actually was for us. Now he can go to hell, playing for Man.Utd. will not be forgiven.

According to newspaper reports, Michael Owen is set for a shock return to Anfield.

The former Liveprool striker's contract is up at Man Utd at the end of the season and Roy Hodgson may be able to get him for as little as £4m when the transfer window reopens in January.

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Livred would love that..

£4m? No way

Assassin wrote:

According to newspaper reports, Michael Owen is set for a shock return to Anfield.

The former Liveprool striker's contract is up at Man Utd at the end of the season and Roy Hodgson may be able to get him for as little as £4m when the transfer window reopens in January.

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Livred would love that..

A strong contender for wind-up of season.

Assassin wrote:

According to newspaper reports, Michael Owen is set for a shock return to Anfield.

The former Liveprool striker's contract is up at Man Utd at the end of the season and Roy Hodgson may be able to get him for as little as £4m when the transfer window reopens in January.

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Livred would love that..

you made my day assassin! would be an awesome birthday (still some time) gift for me, does owen come back to liverpool

Hahaha i think theres more chance of Fergie retiring than that happening!!!

how can people be so mean to owen?

lol owen can feck off

lfc4ever wrote:lol owen can feck off

LivRED4Gerrard wrote:how can people be so mean to owen?

The moment he signed on dotted line for them wank*rs, he signed himself out of ever returning to Liverpool. Could be a load of tosh anyways.